And to the astonishment of everyone near by, Marie lisped out these very words: "The Breezy and be blowed to her."
* * * * *
Now when the Breezy left Plymouth Sound she was starting on her very first cruise--newly commissioned.
She had new guns, six of them; none very large but all fearful spitfires. She was steel--steel all over, but this same steel whether in masts, or tops, or decks, or plates, was a new invention, and to all intents and purposes impenetrable. There was no wood about her that was inflammable, and the officers' cabins were lined with a species of newly invented papier-maché, which by itself could resist rifle bullets. But above all, the marines or bluejackets who might be wanted to fight in exposed positions had light shields and breast-plates of this same marvellous material.
The Breezy was going surveying, but she had moreover special diving machines, of which more anon.
I have always looked upon a ship as a living, sensitive thing, and it seems right to call her "she," especially if she is sprightly and beautiful and obeys her helm well (I was very nearly saying "obeys her husband").
I am sure of one thing; that when on that bright and sunny morning the Breezy went clipping through the water and heading for the waves, she knew she was the cynosure of all eyes and every opera glass on the Hoe. She was as proud as a girl with a pink silk petticoat, as a sailor observed.
* * * * *
They were all young in the Breezy's wardroom, and the Commander himself, who, as befitted his rank lived in solitary grandeur in his quarters farther aft, was considerably under thirty.
To a great extent the grey-beards, as they were somewhat irreverently called, were cleared out of the Service as far as smaller ships on foreign stations were concerned. That is they had been placed on the retired list.